News Round-Up
26 July 2024
Government Has Just Declared War on Free Speech
26 July 2024
by Toby Young
Lockdowns were unquestionably the stupidest Government intervention of our lifetimes, and all for nothing. Anyone who still claims they were 'worth it' is in denial, says Luke Johnson.
According to newly-published figures, inflation-adjusted living standards in Britain have fallen for five out of the last six quarters. Britons today are worse off than they were in the last quarter of 2017.
Amid an immigration surge, a shortfall of 250,000 homes and soaring rents, the Irish Government has sent in riot police to Tipperary where locals are protesting the closure of the last hotel to accommodate asylum seekers.
Insurance companies are using global warming to justify a huge hike in home cover premiums – even if the homeowners don't live near rivers or the sea and have never made a claim for storm damage.
Net Zero policies are pushing up inflation and hitting economic growth, a top Bank of England policymaker has warned – though she does not see that as a reason to oppose them.
A heating engineer has told the Daily Sceptic that with the approaching ban on gas and oil boilers, he can easily foresee the day when customers will be left without heating entirely because they can't afford a heat pump.
2.84 million viewers are refusing to pay the BBC licence fee – a 360,000 increase from last year. It looks increasingly as if the BBC cannot survive on its current funding model and should become a subscription-based service like Netflix and Amazon Prime.
London's Ulez expansion leaves small businesses desperate and prices customers out. Will Labour support struggling constituents or prioritise the party's green agenda?
A recent poll found far more people blame the war in Ukraine for the cost of living crisis than lockdown. But the data are clear: inflation started as lockdown ended and no impact from the start of the war can be seen.
Thomas Fazi has written a pessimistic essay for UnHerd in which he predicts widespread civil unrest in the UK this winter, thanks to spiralling household energy bills and other self-imposed political disasters.
© Skeptics Ltd.